Football: How An Hour Becomes Three

The object of the game is pretty straightforward advance the ball towards the opponents' end zone. But how that's done demands for some serious training, skill and time. The entire game is supposed to last for just an hour because by regulation, the four quarters of the game should each have 15 minutes. If you take the half-time break, the penalties, the time-outs and all the dramas of the game into calculation, the entire game would run for almost 3 hours, most of the time. To add to this length of game play, there would be two-minute breaks in between the first and the third quarter to give time for the switching of sides for both teams. After which, the game would begin where it left off. Two minutes don't sound much but that doesn't end the list of extra minutes. To allow rest to players and to give time for the audience to buy their snacks, not to mention to provide enough time for the cheerleaders to take their 15 minutes of glory, there is a 15- or 30-minute intermission after the second quarter. This is known as the half-time. It will be called regardless of who possesses the ball or what the current engagements of the players are. Once the half-time expires, the players would start fresh and they would again pick up from where they left. Technically, the game should only take an hour, if the calculation is based on the four 15-minute quarters. But it should be remembered that the clock doesn't continuously run through the game, so the 15 minutes on the clock do not expire within 15 minutes. In fact, those fifteen minutes only signify the length of each quarter. There are lots of stops that may happen during a touchdown, the first downs, time-outs, referee calls, players taking their positions, commercials, and others.Given the right conditions, say there is no tie breakers, the length of the game would be close to three hours as was mentioned earlier. But with a sudden death or overtime, some games last for more than 6 hours, some even took days to settle the tie. Even without overtime, some games could stretch for as much as 4 hours. Apart from the factors given above, the length of a football game also depends on the kind of football being played. Like for high school football, there are only 12 minutes per quarter. College football runs as long as professional football. But with all the "commercials" and "breaks", the average football game will commonly last for three hours.
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